colour therapy

In alternative medicine, application of light of appropriate wavelength to alleviate ailments or facilitate healing. Coloured light affects not only psychological but also physiological states - for example, long exposure to red light raises blood pressure and speeds up heartbeat and respiration rates, whereas exposure to blue has the reverse effect.

Colour therapy can be traced back to ancient Chinese and Egyptian cultures, and was revived in Europe in the 19th century by the Austrian scientist Rudolf Steiner. Colour therapists maintain that some ailments, such as asthma, can be treated by colour therapy alone, and that many others respond better to conventional treatments with its aid.